Page 63 of Three Reckless Words

It’s in line with the direction the city council leans, plus it’ll give us advertising you can’t buy.

I have to hand it to him—it’s not bad.

People love green plants and healthy amenities, now more than ever. Even if Junie had a hand in encouraging him to go this route, it could catch on.

Even Patton doesn’t object.

“It’s decent,” he admits, looking at the graph of projected revenue over a five-year period. “Not my style, but some people have no taste. If we can keep the branding, it’s workable.”

“You got The Cardinal in Kansas City. This one’s mine,” Dexter says pointedly. He turns to me. “What do you think, Arch?”

“Looks good, yeah.” I run my pen through my fingers, blinking several times at the screen.

“That’s it? That’s all you’ve got to say? No ripping us a new asshole while you blow your stack over risks and why we should settle for safer growth?” Dexter blows a breath through his teeth. “Okay, man. What is going on?”

“There’s one secondary issue I wanted to bring up.” Now’s as good a time as ever, I guess, and I might as well go for it. “You know Solitude?”

Patton and Dexter trade glances.

“You mean the cabin?” Patton asks slowly. “Yes, we’re familiar.”

“It’s currently occupied and due to unforeseen circumstances, our current guest can’t pay for the full stay they booked.” I toy with how many details to give them, but my brothers are sharks. I can’t afford to give them any blood. “This guest has a very serious personal situation. I promised I’d see what I could do to extend their time. They’re an expert on bees and they’ve promised to help out in exchange.”

“Bees? Hold on, I’m not following.” Dex taps his pen loudly against the table like a drum. “Are you, Archer Rory, saying you want us to give this person afree stay?”

“Not free,” I correct. “Apparently, the bee boxes our landscaping crew installed turned up something interesting. They produce rare honey. Supposedly. It’s definitely purple, I’ve seen it myself. Sh—our guestknows how to extract the honey and says we can sell it. The stuff may get a decent price.”

“Decent? How decent? Like does this purple honey outshine a barrel of oil?” Patton taps a few keys on his laptop. “Oh,” he says, giving me a sly glance. “I get it now.”

“What?” Dexter pulls the laptop closer, takes a good, long look, and grins. “Oh, wow. It all makes sense now. It’s awoman.”

“Is she cute?” Patton asks. “Shit, I want to see her. She must be a knockout to turn Arch into Mr. Charity.”

“Fucking hell, guys, this isn’t about how cute she is. Knock it off.”

“So sheiscute?”

I glower at Dexter. “It’s none of your damn business what she looks like.”

“Okay. So Rina’s back in town,” Patton muses. “How’s that going for you?”

“For fuck’s sake, guys.” I pinch my nose, wishing I could go back in time and start my own company. I could’ve taken the financial hit without ever speaking to these idiots. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Rina.”

“Doesn’t it, though?” Dexter’s grin makes me want to throw him off a cliff. “You’re telling me you’renotdoing a fake-girlfriend thing to keep Rina off your back?”

“Hell no.”Not yet anyway. “That’s your territory.”

“Worked out pretty well in my experience. Five stars. Would gladly find my wife again by pretending to date her first.”

“That’s not what you thought at the start of it,” I snarl, then stop myself. “Look, I barely know the girl. She just wound up in a dicey situation.”

“What kind of dicey? This better not have anything to do with mobsters or poisoned kids.” Patton turns to Dexter. “But hey, it turns out he’s got a heart. Who’d have thought? Christmas is saved.”

“Fuck you entirely,” I spit. “Look, this honey thing could be a potential gold mine. I did some digging. It’s very rare when it’s as neon-purple as this stuff and the markup on organic honey like this gets insane.”

They both stare at me like bored cats.

I’m not convincing either of them. Hell, I’m not sure I’m convincing myself.

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